This page began as an informal blog by Niki (author of the Niki's Thoughts devotions) for talking about whatever. Going forward, it will be a mix of blogging and devotions. My inspiration comes from my relationship and faith with Jesus. Drop me a line and let me know if there's anything you'd like to hear me weigh in on...

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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Pinch Me Please ~ I Think I'm Dreaming!

{This warning is getting redundant but beware of rambling ahead!}

Wow! If last week had been any more amazing I may have passed out from the excitement! I may be enjoying this a bit more because I am such a huge NASCAR fan but honestly I feel incredibly blessed to have added the memories the past two weeks that I have - and the fun's not over yet!

If y'all read parts one and two than you are caught up through the All Star Race last Saturday night. If not, you should totally go back and read those first! Go ahead, we'll wait...

Ready? I'm gonna have to break this into two separate adventures again! So, part one starts on Tuesday. Hubby, Baby Bear and I went to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in Concord to look around and run an errand for my good friend, Sara. Baby Bear of course wanted to sit in the racecars. EGR of course did not let him. LOL

When you're a part of JR Nation (Who isn't? JK) you don't miss a chance to visit Hendrick Motorsports while you're in Concord...so that's where we went next. I am proud to say we simply walked around and looked at everything without spending any money we didn't have! That's an accomplishment in there y'all!!!

Tuesday night on Twitter we got to interacting with the Front Tire Changer for Turner Motorsports'/Justin Allgaier's Team who also happens to work at Michael Waltrip Racing. His name is Kyle Turner and if y'all ain't following him on Twitter (@ksturner84) you should fix that. Go ahead. We'll wait. Again.

Kyle asked if we were going to be at MWR's Fan Fest Wednesday and I honestly didn't even know it was going on but I said we'd try to stop by. This leads us into one of my most treasured memories of the past two weeks. Easily! We met up with my friend, Silly Girl (if you're not on twitter just roll with it) but she could only stay a few minutes. We got to say hey to Kyle but then he had to work.

They still had wristbands left for Martin Truex, Jr and Clint Bowyer's autograph sessions so we got a couple of those and stepped into Truex's line. Let me tell you the coolest thing we witnessed! They were wanting to limit autographs to one per person but there was a lady right near the front of the line with two items. The PR person leaned in to say something to Truex (I assume it was, "Only sign one" or something to that effect?) but he shrugged his shoulders and signed everything anyone brought to him. Very cool!

So after we got Truex's John Hancock (swoon!) we strolled over to Miss Sprint Cup so George could drool, er, I mean get his picture taken and have her sign his hat! While he was happy dancing I got a tweet from Kyle saying that if we were still gonna be around we could watch pit practice at 1:45. We looked at the line for Clint Bowyer, which wasn't moving, and decided to walk around for a lil bit until we could go watch. I got the location from Kyle, he came and showed us where to go and introduced me to Chuck, ( @cefaw0922 on Twitter!!) the rear tire changer. At 1:45 we headed that way.

So MWR has these bleachers set up right outside where they do live pit practices. There was no one else watching, just George, Baby Bear and me. We got there in time to see them warm up, prepare all their equipment and run through several stops (I frankly lost count because this was such an amazing experience I was in awe!) . After they were done Kyle came over and gave Baby Bear some lugnuts from the ground that had come off that car!

We're only up to Thursday! We took our wristbands on over to EGR to see Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya. Now I am not a JPM fan but it was a package deal so we went cuz Jamie Mac is too cute to pass up. I mean...um...moving on! We got there about fifteen or twenty minutes before the session started and wouldn't ya know they were having pit practice out back. Now at EGR we had to stand quite a far ways away and watch through an iron barred fence but lemme tell ya Baby Bear and I were captivated all the same!

Once we got inside for our autographs, I was pleasantly surprised. I will say this about JPM, in person he is very friendly and genuine with the fans. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years. Oh, and yes ladies, Jamie Mac is even more adorable in person. That is all.

Another cool person we got to meet at EGR was a fellow #TMSFanCrew member, Tommy and his beautiful fiancee! Of course you know hugs were exchanged! We took a pic, talked a lil bit and parted ways. Baby Bear oogled the cars some more and then Baby Bear and George both drooled over another Miss Sprint Cup lady. Another autograph on George's hat and we got a pretty adorable picture of the three of them!

We had seen signs for Rousch's Fan Fest down the road so we decided to head there next. They happen to be right next to Richard Petty Motorsports so we headed there first. Got a free Krispy Kreme. Yum! Ran into more awesome friends, more hugging of course! The coolest thing, by far, that happened while we were there...can you guess? We got to watch pit practice!!

We were still behind an iron fence but closer to the action than at EGR. (EGR if ya happen to read this, hahaha, you should work on this, fans LOVE pit crews!) After they were done they brought Baby Bear a lugnut! They were still working out there and Baby Bear didn't wanna leave so we stuck around a lil while. The same pit crew guy came over and gave Baby Bear another lug nut!

Before he walked away George asked him if the pit crew guys would all sign our 5/3rd Bank Hat I won at the Fan Fest up the hill. They happily obliged us so we are now the proud owners of a hat signed by the whole pit crew! YAY! I was beaming all the way back to the car as we argued over who's hat it was!

As if our day wasn't epic enough, when we left Rousch/Petty Fan Fests we headed over to the hospital to see my surrogate family. There's a new baby and I got to hold him! He's such a cutie!!! We spent a good half hour visiting, during the whole time of which my Baby Bear snuggled with my surrogate Momma. It was priceless!

We left there to see my best friend, Amber, who's sister it was that just had the baby. We got to spend almost an hour, over lunch, just chatting and laughing at Baby Bear's antics. We only live about thirty minutes from each other but we don't do this nearly often enough so it was a treat!

I'm going to cut this off here and work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday's adventures a little later this weekend! I hope y'all don't mind me rambling! If you made it to the end it must not be all that bad! Ha! Seriously, thank y'all for letting me share a lil bit of my crazy semi-rock star (in my head) life with ya. I am on cloud nine thanking God daily for these and so many more blessings!